Information about novel Coronavirus from the World Health Organization (WHO)

IMPA has published examples of best practice together with a letter from Capt. Simon Pelletier, President of IMPA.

The United Kingdom Maritime Pilots' Association (UKMPA) has all been inundated with CV19 communications from all manner of sources in the last few weeks. Here is a condensed collection of information from the UKMPA.

On Monday, March 23, 2020, Admiral Osama Rabie announced the successful transit of the Italian passenger ship COSTA DIADEMA in the northbound convoy through the new Suez Canal, coming from the United Arab Emirates heading to Italy. Special measures were applied, as 65 Coronavirus cases were reported on board which required piloting the vessel remotely through pilotage team boarded on two escorting tugs in full coordination with the transit control offices and navigation monitoring stations in a first of its kind scenario in the history of the Suez Canal.

During the night Mar 28-29 EVER GIVEN was moved from her initial grounding position and hopefully, soon, will be either refloated, or positioned alongside Canal eastern bank, to free the Canal for shipping.

Good news for pilot safety: As one of the leading shipping companies, MAERSK is now targeting the notorious "trapdoor arrangements". A corresponding notification to all the company's ships concerned was made public in the last few days.

The European Maritime Pilot´s Association has released the new Newsletter issue 003/2022.

The pilot boat will be christened Paga after the Paga Hill which overlooks the Fairfax Harbour where PNG Ports operates from in Port Moresby.

Already published for the first time in September 2020: Maritime piloting operations involve on-call work schedules that may lead to sleep loss and circadian misalignment. The study documented pilot work scheduling practices.

Coronavirus may be hampering global trade but it hasn't broken the supply chain at the Port of Oakland. The latest evidence: the largest ship ever to call in Oakland arrives this week. The container vessel MSC Anna is scheduled to berth at the Port April 16.

The ship will tie up at Oakland International Container Terminal on the Oakland Estuary. The Port said that the 1,312-foot-long vessel is on special assignment from Geneva-based shipping line MSC. It’s collecting a backlog of empty containers in Southern California before arriving in Oakland. It’s scheduled to spend 24 hours here discharging import containers and loading exports.

A containership arriving in Taiwan hit the berth after traveling in excess of the harbor speed according to reports from the port authority and Taiwan’s Maritime and Port Bureau. They are confirming media reports that the pilot assigned to the vessel was legally intoxicated at the time of the incident.